Yesterday (thank G-d*) school was cancelled and we all got a day’s rest, even if we have to come back in today. Of course the school news program said that it was due to Rosh Hashanah, but not many people know what exactly takes place during this holiday and how it’s celebrated among more orthodox people.

In essence, Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish equivalent of New Year’s, except celebrating the anniversary of when God created Earth. Yesterday marked 5785 years since the first seven days of creation, the prime day to go to Synagogue (a Jewish church) and pray the previous years of sin away. The reason this takes a whole day to accomplish is due to the fact that a long, detailed prayer is sung with the 100 times blown ram’s horn (a shofar) in the background.

The prayer includes every single possible sin a Jew could commit, from something as bad as adultery, to something as small as accidentally yelling the Lord’s name in vain when you stubbed your toe really hard that one time. This is so, even if you forget that one time you stubbed your toe, you can still be absolved and forgiven by G-d and start the new year off with a clean slate, and this year many of our students and myself took part in this.

*Some Jews write God in this way to avoid spelling out the sacred name as a sign of respect.